La Garderie
by Mayalen
Summary: Community service sucks, you already knew that. But what if it led to something more? Wouldn't you want to know what he's thinking? -AkuRoku, maybe others.


**Greetings, everyone. I know it's been a long time since I last posted anything. I'm sorry. I haven't forgotten about Chemical Kisses or anything, I just saved the latest chapter somewhere weird and can't find it. I'll post it when it shows up again.**

**Anyway, this is my latest story. I actually wrote it in a notebook about three years ago, and found it the other day, so I typed it up and made a LOT of changes. I think it's going to be pretty good, so please give it a chance, enjoy the humor, and let me know what you think about it. **

**And yeah, I know La Garderie is a dumb title, but its better than just calling it what it is...but I digress.**

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La Garderie

Chapter One: Subordination

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Well, this sucked.

No, it more than just sucked. Who was he kidding? It was fucking _awful_.

Axel was sitting in a playground. Yeah, a genuine, bona-fide playground. The whole swing-slide-and-baby-barf deal. And why was he there?

Because he was a victim of the man, that's why!

Or at least, that's what he kept telling himself.

It really was because of the law. No, there wasn't some new inhumane law stating that teenagers _must_ spend their leisure time in godforsaken places like these; it was an old law. One that said, you can't destroy public property.

And by destroy, it meant burn.

And by public property, it meant a playground.

A playground which was, ironically, quite similar to the one he was trapped in currently.

Because, of course, what could be a more fun thing to do on a Friday night than torching a play structure? Of course, he, Larxene and Demyx probably should have thought about an escape plan _before_ the smoke was a mile high, and they were running for their lives down the dark streets. Also, if they had thought ahead, running _away_ from a fire, _past_ the local police station was a very bad idea, indeed.

It was such a bad idea, in fact, that they had gotten caught. And now, they were all serving community service at separate facilities..._during summer break_.

Oh, fate, thou art a cruel and merciless bitch.

Crueler still was where Axel was being forced to serve his time. Demyx had to be a volunteer lifeguard at the local pool; that was okay, he liked water and could swim. Larxene was at the community rec center, setting up targets and obstacles for a kid's martial arts class. That was okay, she was a violent person sometimes, it at least _related_ to her interests. And where was Axel?

He was sitting in playground dirt, trying to tune out the horrible sound of children at play, next to a sign that read: "Day Care".

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"Marlene?"

A brunette was wandering the long, dark halls of a quiet house, trying to find his young sister. He stepped lightly, having put on socks today even though he would be wearing sandals when he went out. Anything to avoid that sticky foot noise that you get on hardwood floors in the summer. He hissed the name again, as softly but menacingly as he could, and peeked delicately into a spare bedroom. No reply...until he heard faint, childlike giggles.

He sighed. There was no time to dawdle around! He padded into the room, sourced the giggles and slid the closet door open. The petite girl sitting among the fur coats and mothballs looked up at him. "Sora!" she smiled, laughing loudly, "You found me!"

"Shhh!" Sora shoved a coat at her, muffling her voice. "You dont want to wake _him_ up!"

Marlene's eyes widened, and her expression sobered up. "Oh, right!" she whispered, pushing the coat away and crawling out from the closet to stealthily look out the door. She faced Sora again after peering into the quiet darkness of the house. "I don't hear anything," she delightfully declared.

Sora sighed again. Safe, for now. "Okay, now lets go! You're already late for daycare." He ushered her out, grabbing her pink flowery backpack in the hall and hurrying towards the door. "My friends will be waiting for me at the mall soon," he added with agitation, pulling the socks off his feet and pulling on his sandals. He checked his watch, its glowing green numbers reading 8:10. He was supposed to have dropped Marlene off at 8, damn it. He was meeting Kairi, Riku and Selphie at 8:30. Better get the lead out, then, he thought as they both put on super-safe matching helmets and hopped onto his super-cool, super-hip...

...bicycle.

Marlene stood on a sticking-out piece on the back wheels, while holding onto Sora's shoulders for balance as he pedaled. He kicked off, and they slowly rolled down the driveway and onto the street most carefully.

Almost 10 minutes and some serious pedaling later, they arrived at the daycare. Marlene was a bit older than the other kids that went there, but her and Sora's parents were working all summer and apparently couldn't trust their sons to watch their sister. This didn't bother Sora a bit; it meant more free time for him, and more time at the beach.

Marlene hopped onto the sidewalk as they stopped, and took off her helmet. Her hair was flattened and askew so Sora discreetly fixed it for her. "Have fun today!" he told her, checking that she had her backpack still.

"Thanks Sora!" She smiled and ran off inside, probably to put her helmet in her cubby. Sora smiled after her. Haha...oh, wait, what's this? He just now noticed an unhappy redhead sitting by the exit of the daycare. Huh? He was definitely too old to have been dropped off here. Pedophile? Sora looked the other boy over, and ruled out this theory by the sheer hatred of children that was radiating from this other person. Maybe he was working? He sure didn't look like it, though.

"Who're you?" Sora asked, stepping off his bike. It was his obligation as a big brother to make sure his little sister was in a safe place, of course!

The stranger looked up at him, his eyes pleading, _Please kill me_. "Axel," he pointed to the flowery name tag pinned to the front of his t-shirt. "Shepherd to the young and misguided minds of suburbia."

"Oh," Sora stared at him. "So you work here?"

Axel flinched. "Yes, yes I do."

"And you're crazy?"

"Yeah, i'm crazy."

"Oh." Sora shifted his weight from one foot to the other. A car drove by. Silence hung between them. "So, uh...my brother will pick Marlene up at 4." There was no reply from Axel, as the redhead just stared at Sora, his eyes speaking for him. _And...?_

Sora looked at his bike, and hopped on it quickly. "Bye." He rode away as fast as he could. Sheesh, what a weirdo! He hoped Marlene wouldn't accidentally ask that scary man for help glueing a macaroni necklace together... wait, glueing a necklace? Oh, sanity, you flighty vixen.

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Axel sighed. Bored, bored. It had been almost an hour since the last kid had been dropped off, and that guy had talked to him. Axel had done a fairly good job of ignoring the gross, sticky children. That is, until two of them came over to him at that very moment.

"Mister Birdy," the little girl with blonde curls spoke, "Liam peed his pants over there." She pointed behind the slide.

_What the hell?_ Axel thought, _Mister...Birdy?_

- Earlier -

_"I think he looks like a lobster!" a little black haired boy decided. _

_"Just because his hair is red?" A blonde girl frowned, "Its fluffy like a parrot's feathers."_

_"A parrot?" a third child thought, "So...he's Mister Birdy?" _

_"Yeah!" they cheered. It wasn't every day a new 'teacher' came, after all._

"I don't care," Axel said honestly, "Go inside and find someone else to help you."

Tee kids turned away sadly. What was he supposed to do? There were at least three other people inside that actually _liked_ kids, and would help this icky Liam kid. Besides, he was on playground duty.

Sort of.

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The day proceeded to be long and boring, as expected. Axel had hoped that eventually, something even mildly interesting would happen. In between counting the number of rocks that was stuck in his shoe (without looking), or trying to spot inappropriate shapes in the clouds, maybe something would implode, or a fight would break out... but no. These kids had to be safe and intact, even without his supervising.

So all day, he sat in once place. Until finally, something happened.

A lot of people had passed down the two parallel streets that day. Sakura Line was on the right side of the playground, the entrance to which Axel was sitting at, and Fontaine Boulevard was on the left side. The same side that, at a quarter after four in the afternoon, somebody came skateboarding down.

Axel actually sat up once he heard the specific sound of teenage transportation. He glaced around wildly; was it Demyx, coming to rescue him from his punishment? Oh, what a knight in tarnished armor! But as far as his vision allowed, he could not make out the form of his lanky lifeguard friend. Instead, a different male was coming around the bend. Axel hopped up from the dirt and ducked behind a shrub. Why? He wasn't sure, but it was his instinct and allowed him to stare at this person without seeming like even more of a criminal.

Even from the distance, he decided that this person was...gorgeous. He had spiky blonde hair that looked windswept slightly to one side, but in that sort of just-out-of-bed way that Axel envied. Not that he would _tell_ anyone that he spent an hour every morning with the hair straightener and pomade, but that was beside the point. Axel could even spot this boy's eye color from the distance. It was shocking blue, too brilliant to be real...contacts? Must've been. No ordinary person could have fluorescent eyes like that. They stood out from so far away, even though Axel had to squint a little - it made it look like the guy had two big neon blobs on his face, but that was okay.

He was wearing dark baggy jeans with the knees torn out, and a form-fitting black t-shirt. His converse were a really deep blue, but were practically shredded to pieces with wear. Axel looked down at his own clothes. Black knee-length shorts, a grubby looking shirt, and a worn out zipper-up hoodie. He zipped the sweater up to the top nervously. _Why do I always look like a dirtbag? I have nice clothes. I should be wearing nice clothes. _

The boy skateboarded down the street, swerving back and forth as he grew nearer to the Daycare. _Wow, he's cool, _Axel thought from his hiding place in the bushes. _Too bad, someone like that would never be coming to this gross child farm... _but, to Axel's surprise, the skateboarder stopped at the opposite entrance to the yard and flipped his board up into the air, catching it with one hand. He walked - somewhat sulkily - onto the playground, where a small herd of youngsters rushed over to him. _Oh, so he worked here? No, wait.._. he was holding them off, using his skateboard as a crowd barrier. Genius! So he hated kids; awesome. But if he hated kids and didn't work here, what could this person be doing?

Axel was still unnoticed by the far right entrance, and he frowned. I wish he_ would notice me...I am the oldest, most bored person here, after all. _Then suddenly, the little brunette girl who had come late this morning ran outside from the back door of the building, her bike helmet in hand. She rushed over to the blonde, where he was still fending off the over-friendly kiddies, but stopped shortly in front of him and put her little hands on her hips in an angry way,

"Roxas!" she huffed, "You didn't bring your bike today!" Axel smiled slightly form his onlooking position. So, his name was Roxas...and his bike? Oh, she must've meant the bicycle that her other brother rode this morning. _Well, skateboards were much cooler...kids just didn't understand that. They were all about efficiency instead of awesome-attude...-ism..._

"Whatever," Axel heard him reply, "I will tomorrow, if you want." What a nice brother! Well, sort of, as with a final swat at the child-mob, Roxas turned and left, leaving his sister to run after him, toting the helmet. Though, he didn't ride his skateboard again; he walked and she followed close behind, regaling him with stories of her day.

_Huh,_ Axel stared after them; _well that was pretty fucking weird._ Now, he decided, he must meet Roxas in person. Why? He was an alternative to a bland, boring day at the daycare. But how would he introduce himself?

...What had been his sister's name? Her brother had said it in the morning... It sounded like Larxene; Larmene? Marlene? Oh, yes, that was it.

So now, Axel crept back out of the bushes, faced with a challenge for the next day: Befriend Marlene.

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**Hope you liked it. I'll be waiting for a few reviews before I upload the next chapter, so please favorite, alert, review, all that jazz. **

**And a special thanks to all my loyal readers who have put up with my lack of posting, you guys rock for being so patient and awesome. 3**


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